Sunday, September 9, 2007

Debris ejected by the Sun from a comet that crossed our orbit years ago, being hit by the Earth in its trajectory around our star. The speed of the encounter with each one of these fragments is so high that the friction with our atmosphere that both the small rock and the air that surrounds it become incandescent, forming a bright trail until the extraterrestrial object is completely consumed. Since they reach the atmosphere until they are totally vaporized they can travel tens of kilometers, using for this only a fraction of a second.

From the ground you can contemplate a good sight, even in the course of several nights. Lying down on the sand of the beach, in almost complete darkness and with the murmur of the waves in the background, I could see more than twenty of these fireballs, radiating from the constellation of Perseus that gives the name to the meteor shower. The brightness and duration of some of them stood out of the rest, even crossing from side to side constellations like Cygnus to then disappear.

Star dust falling towards us. Remains from the formation of the solar system that after billions of years in space become part of our planet, continuing with the process. A process that seems to have ended eons ago, but is still active —the formation of the Earth itself.

And to see it the only thing you need is to look at the sky, and wait…